Films and Movies-Cinemas from around the globe

He is too good to be an ordinary film industry guy, an actor, a producer, director and a critically acclaimed writer. Born in 1972 with a name Benjamin Géza Affleck-Boldt and has earned some fame. His true potentials were discovered by the director Kevin Smith in the movies Mallrats & Chasing Away. He was two awards for the screenplay of his movie Good Will Hunting, Academy & Golden Globe. He is the founder of the production company LivePlanet along with Matt Damon, his childhood friend.

Ben was born in California with an Irish surname Affleck, owing to his Irish ancestory. At the tender age of 8, he met Matt Damon and their friendship has lasted through the rough and tough weather of life. As a child actor, he appeared in the kid series The Voyage of the Mimi. During the last decade of 20th century, he had roles in Lifestories: Families in Crisis.

Affleck grabbed the attention of Hollywood from the movie Good Will Hunting. He later appeared in many box office successes including Armageddon, Pearl Harbor & The Sum of all Fears which is based on the book of same name written by Tom Clancy. He is in no way limited to the films and has continued to appear in HBO series namely George Reeves, Noir Biopic & Hollywoodland.

He appeared in his favorite movie Daredevil in 2003 because Daredevil was his beloved comic character during childhood. The movie grossed $179 million worldwide. He co-starred with Jennifer Garner in the movie whom he later married in 2005.

Ben Affleck has been the lead actor in numerous blockbusters; the list of top 10 movies is compiled below

Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger was born on 30th July 1947. He has lived numerous shades of life beginning with a professional body builder to an actor & director, then a businessman and a politician. He became Mr. Universe at the age of 20, won Golden Globe Award at 29 and became Governor of California when he was 56.

Arnold began his body building career at the age of 15 and accomplished his dream by becoming the best in the business. He has won the Mr. Olympia Contest seven times has and has written several books and articles on the sport.

He has a series of nicknames pertaining to each aspect of his career starting with the “Austrian Oak” and the “Styrian Oak” in his bodybuilding days, then “Arnie” during his acting career and more recently the “Governator” which is a combination of both Governor & Terminator.

After conquering the world of body building, Arnold turned towards his second dream, acting and shun on the widescreen with different roles. He got his first break in the movie Hercules credited under the name Arnold Strong. The first major role was in the movie Stay Hungry. Schwarzenegger drew attention in the bodybuilding film Pumping Iron & purchased the rights to the film, its outtakes, and associated still photography in 1991.

Terminator was released in 1984 and become his trademark movie in a very short period of time. The sense of humor of the tough guy was portrayed in many comedy movies such as Twins and Comedy Junior.

Arnold has not left a single stone unturned and has excelled in every field he has stepped into. The top ten movies of Arnold are listed below;

Sir Philip Anthony Hopkins is a Welsh actor of drama, stage & film. He is a perfectionist and is ready to do the last mile in order to live a character. He prepares for a specific role as long as he can so that he can do it without thinking in a natural style. Renowned for his ability to remember lines, Hopkins keeps his memory supple by learning things by heart such as poetry, and Shakespeare.

Hopkins is a gifted mimic, adept at turning his native Welsh accent into whatever is required by a character. He duplicated the voice of his late mentor, Laurence Olivier, for additional scenes in Spartacus in its 1991 restoration. In Steven Spielberg’s “Amistad”, Hopkins astounded the crew with his memorization of a seven-page courtroom speech, delivering it in one go. An overawed Spielberg couldn’t bring himself to call him Tony, and insisted on addressing him as Sir Anthony throughout the shoot.

Hopkins is perhaps best known for his portrayal of cannibalistic serial killer Hannibal Lecture in The Silence of the Lambs for which he received the Academy Award for Best Actor, its sequel Hannibal, and its prequel Red Dragon. Besides his win for The Silence of the Lambs, Hopkins has been Oscar-nominated for The Remains of the Day, Nixon and Amistad.

Hopkins became a Fellow of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) at the Orange British Academy Film Awards in February 2008. Hopkins has also written music for the concert hall, in collaboration with Stephen Barton as orchestrator.

The acting of Anthony includes immaculate characterization & perfect execution making it appear natural. The list of top ten movies is as follows;

If someone doesn’t know Al Pacino, then the person doesn’t know about Hollywood either. He was born as Alfredo James Pacino on 25th April 1940. He is an American stage and film actor as well as a director. He is known for playing roles of mobsters, including Michael Corleone in The Godfather trilogy, Alphonse “Big Boy” Caprice in Dick Tracy, Tony Montana in Scarface and Carlito Brigante in Carlito’s Way, though he has also appeared several times on the other side of the law — as a police officer, detective and a lawyer.

In 1992, he played the role of a blind, medically retired army officer, Frank Slade. It is a remake of the Italian movie Profumo Di Donna but won critical acclaim as well as viewer’s recognition. The movie won him the Oscar for best actor which was his 8th nomination for the title. The film also won three major awards at the Golden Globe Awards: Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Actor and Best Motion Picture – Drama.

It was the 1971 film The Panic in Needle Park, in which he played a heroin addict that brought Pacino to the attention of director Francis Ford Coppola. Pacino was given the role of Michael Corleone in The Godfather in 1972, which was a major breakthrough in his career. Although he has never married, Pacino has three children from two of his many relationships.

Pacino’s charm lies in the adaption of different characters. Newsweek stated that

“He [Pacino] can play small as rivetingly as he can play big, that he can implode as well as explode”

Adam Richard Sandler was born in New York in the year 1966. He is a natural comedian and nurtured his gift while performing at comedy clubs and campuses from an early age. He switched on his career with Remote Control, an MTV game show and boarded the Hollywood cruise with his movie “Going Overboard” in 1989. The early movies didn’t win him a lot of praise but he established his status as a renowned comic actor with his movies Bulletproof, Happy Gilmore & The Wedding Singer.

Sandler’s charm extended beyond acting to singing, screenwriting & producing. The production company “Happy Madison” was founded in 1999 which has produced a number of hits for both, television and cinema. The upcoming movie “Jack & Jill” features Adam in a double role presenting twin brother and sister.

Making music is considered entirely different from acting, not for Adam however. He made his mark by musical performances such as The Chanukah Song & Lunchlady Land. His debut album was “They’re All Gonna Laugh at You”

The Waterboy was his first box office hit which initiated a successful streak with movies such as Big Daddy and Mr. Deeds. Sandler’s acting took a dramatic turn with his movie “Punch-Drunk Love” and was nominated for Golden Globe award. The critics such as Roger Ebert have attributed his initial flops to poor scripts and ill-planned characterization. He met Samantha Titone, who happens to be his wife now during filming.

The top ten movies of Sandler comprises of both comedy & dramatic films.

The Waterboy.

The Wedding Singer.

You Don’t Mess With the Zohan.

Billy Madison.

Funny People.

Happy Gilmore

Big Daddy

The Longest Yard.

Reign Over Me.

50 First Dates.

Adam may not be the best comedian in Hollywood but is surely among the best in business.

Vidya Balan the next big thing in Bollywood these days have had a very rocky patch in the journey of her career up till now. Starting off with Parineeta which was a huge success for a fresh actress Vidya took many roles which were challenging and bold and has proved she to be the finest amongst all the new entries in the industry and is now considered as the leading contemporary actress.

Taking about her five megahit movies it is not difficult to pin them out because she has done only a few good films since 2005 and most of them were not so appreciated by the Indian cinema despite Vidya’s acting in it. So according to the statistics and the box office records Parineeta, Lage raho munna bhai, Paa, Ishqiya and Dirty Picture are Vidya Balan’s best movies.

Pareenita was a musical for which Vidya won her first Filmfare award as a newcomer and was nominated as a best actress of the year at the Filmfare Awards. Second mega Hit was Lage raho munna bhai Vidya’s biggest commercial success which was a sequal to Munna bhai MBBS received great appreciation. Ishqiya was a very bold move for Vidya as it changed her whole image from a girl next door to a player. Paa on the other hand was another stand out role for Vidya as she performed very well as a single mother of a diseased child and a divorcee. Then came the most awaited movie of Vidya that is The Dirty Picture in which audience was surprised by her boldness and loved her side they never saw before, it received a mind blowing opening and is positioned among the top five movies of year 2011.

In 2005 starting with Parineeta till now in the dirt picture, famous Bollywood actress Vidya has played different roles in her movies. She debut as Lalita a simple idealistic girl in Parineeta who was the heart and soul of the story. Then in 2006, she portrayed the role of Jhanvi in the movie Lagay Raho Munna Bhai, as a radio-jockey for that she met and observed real radio jockeys at work. She worked as a supporting role Guru as a woman suffering from multiple sclerosis. Her next release was a multi-starrer romance Salaam-e-Ishq: A Tribute To Love in which Balan played the role of a television reporter, Tehzeeb Hussain, suffering from a memory loss condition for her performance she got positive reviews saying “Vidya’s transformation from a self-assured working woman to a helpless, vulnerable person is superb.”

Then in the movie Bhool Bhulaiyan she performed splendidly well as a woman suffering from dissociative identity disorder. In the movie Paa she played the role of a young independent gynecologist who is also a single-mother struggling with her 12-year-old son’s progeria syndrome, this role was a turning point of her career and won her Filmfare Award for Best Actress and a Star Screen Award for Best Actress, among other awards.

Her next film was Ishqiya in which she played sexually manipulative abandoned wife. Her character was described as a femme fatale, and her performance was applauded by critics and brought Vidya Balan Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress and a second consecutive Star Screen Award for Best Actress.

In her movie No One Killed Jessica Vidya Balan played her first real-life character, that of Sabrina Lal, Jessica’s reticent sister who struggled for years to get justice. She portrayed anguish and strength through her performance. And then came The dirty picture in which Vidya played controversial and provocative actress role who struggles hard to stay on the top and get viewers approval.

It is said that ‘either it is an actor that makes a film or it is a film makes an actor’; in Vidya’s case we can clearly say that she has made her movies through her dedication and finding her path in the industry. Facing the impossible odds i.e. belonging to a middle class family having no links in the industry and with no extra ordinary looks; Bollywood popular and hot actress Vidya started off with a great film with huge co-actors but later lost her path in the industry by signing up for roles that were not meant for her but she did not lose hope and fought it with the aim to become India’s number one. So she focused on her acting skills where other girls would have focused on glamour. From Bhalo Theko (debut Bengali film) to Parineeta (Debut Hindi film) and from there to Dirty Picture she has been trying so hard to fit in the Cinema getting weak roles and low budget films Vidya got lost in the Industry. She was willing to start over from scratch to find her way and prove her and so she did. Now she has proved herself as Hindi Cinema’s most courageous and most versatile Bollywood actress of the present era.

With her bold and seductive on screen performances in the movies like Parineeta, Ishqiya and Dirty Picture she has broken her simple girl next door image and is now the subject of most discussions. Who needs a ZERO figure when you have such a great talent and when you can actually act? Though Kareena and Katrina are the Bollywood’s most desirable majorly because of their looks Vidya is desired because of her versatility in acting and so that makes her the new number one leaving Kareena and Katrina behind.

From Actor’s Guild Award to Golden Globe Awards and the Critic’s Choice Awards, all these ceremonies look like a red carpet for the one and only annual Academy Awards, and why not. From the super tan Charlize Theron walking on the red carpet the year she won her first Oscar to Sean Pean winning the Oscar for his role as gay, the Oscars has never failed to surprise us. This year will not be any different, the glamour and glory can be expected of the Oscars at very least, as the 26th February is announced as the final date for the 84th Annual Academy awards.

The most controversial, bizarre and the unconventional cinema which might not be applauded at the box office, becomes the ultimate favorite of both media and the fans as soon as it gets recognition by the Oscars. This year too, like many times before a list of both famous and not so famous movies has been listed in the nominees for the Academy awards.

I am no critic to suggest who is going to win or who deserves it more, but as an analyst it is nice to put a light on what has been nominated and who has got better chances than others. Starting from the best picture category, there are nine movies that has been nominated in the Best Picture category this year which include the Artist, The Descendants, Money Ball, War Horse, Tree Of Life, The Help, Hugo, Midnight In Paris and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, the list alone explains the quality of work done in Hollywood this year. When you see the likes of Steven Spielberg and Brad Pitt as film-maker it becomes hard to suggest who is going to be better War Horse , The Tree Of Life or Money Ball. All has the wit and character to steal the show, but when Avatar couldn’t win an Oscar then it is absurd to make speculations about anything because you never know, but as an analyst I would say The Artist has a better chance than any other movie. Let’s wait and watch.

The second most important category in the film-making category is the nominees for the best director. A couple of familiar faces like Woody Allen and Martin Scorsese are to be seen in the list but at the same time the new ones like Terrence Malick are also trying to break the ice. The critics have named Michel Hazanavicius the favorite for her direction in the Artist. We wish best of luck to all the nominees.

Moving down to the most highlighted set of individual awards that is the Best Male and Female in leading role categories. This category is going to decide who is going to be the king and queen of the Hollywood for the coming year. The Academy Awards has been known to be rewarded to actors and actresses who have pulled out brilliant and exceptional performances in a film and there is no other recognition which an actor or an actress needs if he or she has won an Oscar. Mickey Rourke and Hilary Swank are a true example of the stardom touching the feet after winning an Oscar for Hollywood stars, so this category is without doubt the most important of all the categories in individual awards.

This year the actors topping the rest to reach the Oscar nominees as best Actor male are Demian Bichir, George Clooney, Jean Dujardin, Gary Oldman and Brad Pitt. I know all the female fans would love George Clooney and all these fans should be happy as the critics has also nominated George Clooney as the most deserving for his role in The Descendant. Moving on to the ladies category Glenn Close, Viola Davis, Rooney Mara, Maryl Streep and Michelle Williams are nominated in the Best Actress nominees for the year. When you have got movies like The Help in the list, it is not hard to name Viola Davis as favorite because for her remarkable performance she truly deserves it.

Oscars 2012 are just around the corner and for that sake the nominations have been announced. Some fabulous Hollywood movies made significant impacts with very eloquent story lines. 9 films of 2011 have been nominated for Best Picture category. For the first time, a Pakistani short story documentary has been nominated at the Oscars. We bring you the short and brief nominees in the most prominent categories for your delight: